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Hmm, where to begin. Good episode, not my favorite, though. I thought Voyage was a better episode. However, some very good points.

First, I like that we got to see more of the mando police armor. Very nice, and that scout was cool. Second, the cameo of Mon Mothma and Riyu was nice, as well as one of the other ROTS senators walking in the background when Satine comes out of Palpatine's office. Third, CLONE SHIELDS - loved that, and very fitting if they're acting as extra security. Plus the red emblems and motif for them fits the home guard from ROTS. Finally, the Death Watch army and leaving the mandalore situation open was actually quite interesting. I like that they did, and they can come back to it next season and show us what's happened. The mandalore people are ready to stand up and fight the Death Watch - fits in with the EU stuff, does it not?

As for the "take this to Padme", I'd point out that Satine and Padme had already met, and all things considered, they're probably fairly well acquainted considering Satine and Padme share similar goals. Also, Satine seemed aware that Obi-Wan specifically considered Padme a friend, so while she could have told him to take it to senator Chuchi or Mon Mothma, she knew Obi-Wan would trust Padme. And Padme was fairly well known for standing up to the Senate as a whole, so...she is the most likely choice, with Bail Organa second.

I would also like to note with regards to the assassin and the airpod - he was attempting to make the assassination look like an accident at that point. He abandoned that strategy when the informant gave her the data disk.

We got some solid characters out of this arc. Satine and Viszla are poised to return again, we got the scout and the assassin as well. Overall a good arc for all the controversy, and I can't say I saw anything incredibly damaging to the EU that couldn't be fixed in a page or two of retcon.

I'm glad it destroyed some of KT's work and made a mark of it's own. We'll definitely see them again and hopefully we get some Clones v.s Mando's.

All it did was make the Deathwatch look like chumps. It didn't really destroy anyone's work yet.

They should look like chumps since Jango destroyed the first incarnation of Death Watch.

As for Boba, he's probably getting his skills honed by training and bounty hunting. His main beef in this timeframe should be Mace since he still alive and kicking at this point, but he isn't or shouldn't be good enough to try to take him yet even though he did try at some in young reader novel or something I haven't read yet.

Hm, pretty good episode and pretty good Mando arc too. While normally I'm an EU fan, Obi-wan and Satine actually work pretty well as friends (or more), and Satine looked good in that cloak (just don't care much for her headdress). Nice to see so much of Coruscant, the animation for this series is always great, especially the Senate scene. I'm looking forward to rewatching this whole arc whenever it comes out on Blu-ray, just wish it wasn't so long until the next new episode. Though we're probably already nearing the end of this season, unfortunately.

Not bad politics, with Satine arguing against Republic peacekeeping forces since that would just incite the population. Though when the scout reported in, I was half expecting the Prime Minister to kill him to hide his report about where the Death Watch was. Satine's government hasn't exactly been completely loyal so far. Also liked hearing Mas Amedda talk, as well as that subtle angry look of Palpatine's at the end of the episode when the real speech showed up.

Nice fight between Obi-wan and the assassin, and even without his lightsaber Obi-wan wasn't helpless. And nice to see Dooku in person, rather than just his hologram and an impressive Seperatist fleet. Too bad we rarely see those kind of fleets in battle, unfortunately. The plan this time failed, but otherwise, looks like the Death Watch had at least a small army, but just taking over the planet would make them unpopular so they had to wait. I'm actually looking forward to seeing where that Death Watch army might show up in the future since Dooku officially told them to wait and looks like Visla is smart enough to understand that he can't just take over the planet (and hold it) now.

A couple of nice cameos too, with Mon Mothma, Threepio and various Sentaors like that... Pantoran (I think her planet was called Pantora) Senator too. Almost wish that Rodian Senator from last episode would've shown up, but also nice way to incorporate Padme into the story as a trusted politician. Also nice commentary from Satine that things are changing, and not for the better, when Obi-wan says that they wouldn't search a Jedi. They probably wouldn't, but that won't last forever. Good Mandalorian arc, I hope the rest of season two is also this good.

I enjoyed the episode. Pretty tired though, so I'll save more detailed comments for another post or The Clone Cast.

But regarding Palpy being clearly not good for the Republic...

1. According to RotS, it was the Senate who demanded Palpy stay (and they'd been doing that, apparently, since a few years after TPM). What do we know about the Senate? Well, a lot of the senators are corrupt. So, it may be that he really is giving enough evidence that Senators can reasonably start to wonder if he's really a good guy or not...but most of them don't care.

2. It is true that he suggests Republic forces go to Mandalore. But he doesn't push it aggressively, at least publicly. He brings up the idea, talking about compassion and concern for the people of Mandalore as the motivation. But he lets the senate do the voting. So he might not seem all that pushy to the senate or Republic at large.

-I love Palaptine's face when his plan fall apart. A brief, instant of a snarl, and then shift to kindly old man face.

-I like how Dooku mentioned at the end that Death Watch could take Mandalore, but they couldn't hold it.
---To explain in detail, I thought it was weird that they couldn't just take the planet. How are pacifists going to fight back?
But that line reminded me that a Republic task force would probably liberate the planet in short order, putting it firmly on the Republic side.

-The scene with the clones and the Ithorian was great...and made 100 times better byt he episode guide:

the Episode Guide said:

Clone 1: If you see this woman, report her to local authorities.

Alien: Yeah, yeah. I just saw her!

Clone 2: I don't think he understands us. Let's try someone else.

Alien: No wait! She's over there!

-Clone with shields! Badass!
Combine that with the shield using Mando guards and soon everyone will have shield troopers.

-Nice background for the Sep fleet.

-While Death Watch was stopped, but they weren't destroyed either. Judging from Count Dooku's line, he has plans for them yet.
I wonder what those plans are...also...
...I wonder if Death Watch will be reoccurring characters. Elite troops for the CIS.

-Loved the police droids. Both kinds.

-Satine's allies all seem to die or turn traitor.

-Except the scout. I liked him. though...did he half to run all the way to the Prime Minister personally? Isn't there a chain of command or a space phone or something?

-Once again, Satine's guards are badass, calmly making a jump like that.

-Mass Ameda was interesting here....really working towards Palpatine's angle, but without just parroting him. Kind of being the bad cop to Palpatine's good cop.

-Amusingly enough, Satine seems disturbed by the attempt to frame her...but from what I can tell, it was all an accident. The police certainty got in the way of Palps' assassin.

Can't say I really liked that episode all that much. It wasn't terrible, but a little too slow and talky in parts and didn't get good until the third act when Obi came to the rescue. I guess it just took too long to get going.

I knew once they pretty much had the whole episode following Satine's character that she wasn't going to die, and that's okay because I'm enjoying the Obi/Satine thing a lot.

Curious to see what they do with the Mandos next and I hope we don't have to wait too long to see them again. Guessing it will be sometime in season 3.

I did like the little fight with Obi and the Mando and seeing the Mando use his jetpack and before that Obi force pushing the heck out of him... looked painful and like Obi-wan was perhaps a little angry.

Liked the line about "times are changing" in response to Obi-wan thinking the guards at the Senate wouldn't dare search a Jedi. There was also one other exchange between them I liked (can't remember right now what it was) but for the most part I didn't think the dialogue in the episode was that strong or really sparked.

Thought Satine got away way too easy after the embassy guy gave her the disc and it was really silly when she shot the police floaty droid and it caused the droids to fall over and then the Clones on top of them. Kind of lame right there.

Palpy was great though. Very insidious and they did a good job of showing how much control and power he has over the senate. you could see how it looks like he was trying to help, but since we know the truth about him we can see it also for what it really is. It would be a neat experiement to see if a kid thinks he's beeing helpful or not... i mean a kid who hasn't seen ROTS yet. ALSO, Good to see Dooku again - AND IN NONHOLOGRAPHIC FORM!

Question - what's the deal with Mas Ameeda? I always wondered if he was in on Palpy taking control of the Republic and this episode makes it seem like he's a pretty nasty guy and almost a partner to Palpy. Do you think he knows the truth about Darth Sidious or what's going on with him??

I enjoyed the animation. Great to see that Ralph McQuarrie Coruscant plaza used. Wish they wouldn't use the Hammerhead Ithorians so much, though. Seriously they were EVERYWHERE. Dave needs to make some new background aliens ASAP. And as much as I like the design of that air speeder they are way over using the design.

Doesn't look like we will get a new episode next week... which is probably a good thing since the next episode is Senate Murders... another senate episode which will automatically make people hate it, which they probably will anyway whther they realize it or not because we just had a Senate episode.

One thing that concerns me about the end of the episode is the whole I wonder who tried to kill me, who falisified the evidence stuff. We don't know. Oh well. That could get OLD fast and I hope they don't use that as a crutch again.

Oh, also though the beginning ewas neat with the Mandalore spy thing and it set up the stakes pretty nicely, but year over all just an OK episode, with a pretty strong third act that saved it from behind a waste.

I think it's a shame that Drew Greenberg not only wrote this episode but is a supervising writer for season 2. Props for including more adult stuff in the show, but come on I'd take the fun of a Paul Dini script any day!

It seemed like the sniper had ample time to shoot Satine. Did he not know it was her at first?

Agreed. If he noticed the man was that prime minister from Mandalore, then it maybe clear that Satine was standing next to him. If he was also smart, he would have thrown that thermal detonator at that point. That assassin had a terrible time with that sniper too, and he failed to kill Satine twice. Not much for an "assassin".

I really liked this episode, too, making the Mandalore trilogy 3/3 for me.

I liked that Padme was incorporated without twisting the story around (ie she was doing her job, being a senator). And I loved the detail of Palpatine being annoyed by his scheme falling apart. The whole plot works well on two levels--the knowledgeble fan who knows what's going on gets the smirks and glances, while the fan who doesn't know what happens in episode 3 gets little clues along the way. I think this may be the first time someone actually points out that the 'puppet master' is probably part of the republic government.. And yes, there are Clone Wars fans who don't know Palpy is evil--granted, most of them are under 10, but I'm glad they're not beating us over the head with Palpy=sideous thing. (In my cousin's house Anakin being Darth Vader is a bigger secret than Santa Claus).

And finally....MON MOTHMA!

I thought I saw her walking in the background of the Obi/Satine scene in the senate hallway, just before Padme walks up to them, but dismissed it as wishful thinking...so glad it wasn't!